Why is my new computer flooded with pop-ups and ads?

Advertisements popping up on a new computer bring several things to mind, including what many call "crapware."

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We’ve recently purchased an Acer notebook with Windows 8 and it’s protected by Norton. We’re being flooded with pop-up notices and advertisements. Please help us get rid of them!

No one likes pop-up notices and advertisements. In your case, it’s difficult to be specific about a solution because fixing this depends on exactly what ads and pop-ups you see, what they look like, and how they appear.

Because there are so many potential sources for pop-ups and advertisements, I’m going to review some of the most common and hope that one of them will apply in your situation.

Before we begin…

You need to back up your computer now. One of the first things that I’ll have you do is uninstall some software. If we uninstall something by mistake, the back up will help you get back to where we started.

Flood of pop-ups

When I read your question, the first thing that came to mind was malware.

Now, I know your machine is new, but it’s still possible to be infected. It doesn’t matter what anti-virus or anti-malware program you have. None are perfect and there’s always a chance that malware can sneak on your machine.

So start by making sure that your malware tools and their databases are up to date, and consider running a scan with the free tool from MalwareBytes. While it, too, may not find all malware, Malwarebytes can still detect potentially “unwanted programs” or “adware” that it can remove. This may make the situation better.

My next thought is that you have trialware on your machine and you need to remove it. Trialware is any third-party trial or demo software. Many people have come to refer to the plethora of installed trialware, demos and other unwanted programs as “crapware”.

Computer manufacturers include trialware (and crapware) on their new machines to make money. The hope of manufacturers is that you’ll try and buy the full version of their software. They’ll often display pop-ups and other windows to remind you that their demo software is there.

Getting rid of it

There are a couple of ways to deal with this.

The first is to uninstall the software that you don’t use. As long as you’ve backed up your machine, you can feel safe uninstalling these programs.

Because you have a new machine and it may have a lot of trialware on it, another useful tool is the PC Decrapifier. This uninstalls many known trialware packages easily, safely, and quickly.

Popups while browsing

Now, I’m assuming that these pop-ups appear before you open an internet browser. If you’re seeing this as you navigate the internet, it could simply be from the site(s) you’re visiting.

Again, it all depends on the specifics of the situation. But give my recommendations a try and see if you can uninstall software that might be causing the problem.

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Leo Who?

I'm Leo Notenboom and I've been playing with computers since I took a required programming class in 1976. I spent over 18 years as a software engineer at Microsoft, and after "retiring" in 2001 I started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place to help you find answers and become more confident using this amazing technology at our fingertips. More about Leo.

17 comments on “Why is my new computer flooded with pop-ups and ads?”

What a great recommendation PC Decrapifier is. I recently purchased an HP machine that stood at about 70 GB after installation. Some of the rubbish doesn’t show up in the Uninstall a Program list so I had a great need of a program like Decrapifier. Thank you Leo !

An informed software utility sounds great, because it would have avoided the following event 10 years ago.

I had persistent Norton pop-ups on my new Dell Inspiron. Very frustrating.
Since this my first computer, and I was uninformed, I deleted all things “Norton” I could find. Oops – there went Norton Ghost, my recovery partition.

I ‘was’ plagued with the same problem on my new computer. After writing down the name of where the popups came from, I went into my downloads file and found the one I was looking for – WeDownloads and I deleted it. So far so good. I’m using Firefox as a browser, and can’t get it to get it to do it again. Maybe I’ve done the right thing!!

i have some problems i have some viruses called offerswizard and worldwidecompound and the worldwide thing is unable to uninstal and i tryed ti crash the programs main files but it does not work PLS HELP ME

Every single site I go to has pop ups. A lot of them. I x them out and more pop up. It’s like why even be on the computer when I can’t even see what I’m doing because they cover the screen. Not only that, but my computer is running extremely slow, many times not even responding. I think it has to do with the popups and possible virus. I just don’t know anymore and am afraid to make it worse by downloading sites that say they can help. Somehow I trust you. Can you help me please?

A third party ad is an ad supplied by an ad company which the website owner subscribes to. That company places ads on the webpage and the owner of the website receives financial compensation if someone clicks on the ad.

Generally an advertisement on a website that is not related to the site itself. You are the first party, the website you are visiting is the second party, and the advertisement, then, is considered a third party.

Sorry, I can’t remove ads from your computer. The only ads I control are the ads here on Ask Leo!.

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